Most Canadians leery of cloned animals

OTTAWA — Only a small minority of Canadians believe it is acceptable to clone animals, a newly released government poll finds just as Ottawa is set to announce whether cloned cows and pigs are safe for people to eat.

The 2010 tracking survey of consumer attitudes on policy questions currently under consideration at Agriculture Canada found that only 16 per cent of Canadians find the use of cloning technology on animals either very acceptable (six per cent) or somewhat acceptable (10 per cent). More than half (54 per cent) believe it is unacceptable, including 36 per cent of Canadians who feel very strongly about it.

Women are particularly uncomfortable with the idea, with just nine per cent willing to accept the use of cloning technologies for livestock, compared to 23 per cent of men.

Along with men, acceptance is strongest among people between 18 and 24 and those with a university education. "However, acceptance for cloning is a minority in all demographic and socio-economic segments," the report concludes.

The remainder are either neutral (23 per cent) or don't know (seven per cent), the survey found.

The results of the poll involving over 3,000 Canadians were delivered to government officials in June, as Ottawa was finishing its scientific opinion on the impact of cloned cattle and swine on food safety, animal health and the environment.

The final report, a joint effort by the departments of Agriculture, Health and Environment in consultation with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, is expected to be completed this fall.

The United States Food and Drug Administration and the European Food Safety Authority have already completed their final risk assessment, and concluded meat and milk from healthy cattle and swine clones and their progeny are as safe as food from conventionally bred animals.

A voluntary moratorium remains in place in the U.S., and the European Parliament earlier this year voted for a ban on the sale of meat or dairy products derived from cloned animals or their offspring.

Canada's draft opinion, released under Access to Information legislation, indicates why the issue is a pressing matter.

"Several companies involved in developing reproductive technology tools are prepared to commercialize the products of (Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer or SCNT) animal clones and their progeny in Canada and other countries," the 2008 report states.

In its draft report, the federal government weighed data indicating "there are no biologically significant differences in the composition of foods derived from healthy (Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer) cattle and swine clones and healthy conventionally bred animals" with research showing more health issues for cloned animals.

"Using animal health as an indicator for food and feed safety, the higher incidence of health problems of SCNT animal clones do not add to the overall weight of evidence that foods derived from these animals are as safe as their conventional counterparts. Furthermore, most clones will be used as breeding stock, and their disposal into the food and feed will likely occur later in the life of the animal, long past the normal slaughter age. As there is a lack of data on animal health and food and feed safety for animal clones of advanced age, it is not possible to make any significant conclusions on the safety of foods and feeds derived from cloned cattle and swine of advanced age," the draft paper states.

The issue flared up this past summer, when the U.K. Food Standards Agency told consumers in that country in August that descendants of a clone made their way into the local food supply. The cattle were the offspring of a cloned cow in the U.S. and were shipped to the United Kingdom as embryos.

At that time, Tom Vilsack, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, said he didn't know whether cloned cows or their offspring had made it into the North American food supply despite a moratorium in the U.S., but emphasized that if they have, the animals are safe to eat.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency launched an investigation this summer into a claim that embryos from a cow bred from a cloned parent animal in Britain have been sold to breeders in Canada is ongoing.

Under Canada's interim policy, Health Canada considers any application to commercialize a cloned animal as a novel food, which requires a pre-market safety assessment of the product. Cloned animals are also considered "new substances" under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, so Environment Canada would have to agree that the clones are not toxic to the environment before allowing commercialization.

None have been approved, but it is unknown if there are any under consideration.

The survey of 3,144 Canadians, completed by Ipsos Reid for Agriculture Canada, has a margin of error of 1.8 per cent.

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